Kirk was so disliked by his peers that Wesley was more willing to believe Kirk had finally went off the deep end than that the M-5 was malfunctioning.

But if I recall correctly, it should have been impossible for Kirk to lose total control of the Enterprise to the M-5 (even in the event of a malfunction), but the computer overrode manual override.

I guess I overlooked it, but I didn't really sense that Kirk's peers disliked him that much. Even so, assuming someone we don't like went off the deep end just because that's what we're hoping for isn't exactly rational.

The first part of my comment was a joke (note the smiley).

The second part is what I really think what happened. As far as Wesley knew, the M-5 had a shut-off switch that Kirk could flip if it ever malfunctioned. Wesley didn't know that the M-5 could override its shut-off switch. Heck, Kirk and the gang didn't know it could do that.

__________________"Don't sweat the small stuff--it makes you small-minded..."